Update on KAL and Happy Happy Happy

Just a quick update on the KAL fiasco, as flutter says, yes, that's the designer. But I did get a chuckle from someone else's post (which will likely get deleted on the board), turns out her other job is...as a psychic. The poster made a snark about how if she was good at her job, she should have foreseen this (almost made me spray my monitor with my Diet Coke). hee. I thought it was funny.

eta: Thanks for all the comments!


Anyway, onward to fun stuff. Saturday, I and the girl went up to Color: A festival of fiber. I wish I had signed up for the spinning class before hand, since the classes were full when we got there, but I did manage to check out Girl On the Rock's tutorial about weaving using a mini-loom. What fun (except when A thought it would be funny to run away from mom on several occasions - sigh). In between the chasing, I did manage to make this cell phone doohicky.

So very cool. I now must go find this loom. They're right now going for ~$30-60 a pop. I'm thinking more in the $15 range...I'd make one, but it would be nice to have one in front of me to check it out first.

And they had amazing lovely roving. It's really too bad I can't spin (yet). So I didn't buy any roving. I looked and petted and even allowed A to pet (after I checked that she had clean fingers of course). I also arranged to meet up with the lovely marlowec from Ravelry who yay, gave me some lovely sock yarn. And she was super nice and gave A pineapple.

But after a bit, A was losing it (no nap) and we had to leave. Actually, I don't think we could have done the spinning class. All that whirling and twirling would have sent little A into uber-creature mode. It was a small gathering, but very cool. I hope they do it again (and often).

Then on Sunday, I went to the local library to meet up w/ Ravelry folks. And what was a special treat was that a lace knitting friend who dropped off family at the airport was able to come by and knit with us.

So, pretty productive weekend of fiber. I am now working on the 4 out of 5 rows on the swirly stole (I of course modified the pattern and it's a few less circles/row. I really like it since it's portable and super easy pattern to remember (ask me again when I'm weaving in bazillion ends).

rolling eyes at KAL

I like knitalongs...I might not knit along, I might not even contribute to the chatter, but I like them. I marvel at the folks that have the tenacity to set them up, and I hope that they like doing these since they get 100's and even 1000's of folks knitting something the designer dreamed up. I mean seriously, a bunch of folks waiting with bated breath for Friday to roll around so that they can get a new clue and then blindly knit the clue...such power...

However, there is one knitalong that I joined which did something I really didn't like. The designer claimed that due to the amount of time involved in doing this KAL, that she needed to now charge a fee for the clues to the pattern. Now, it's not the $ that bothers me, there are knitalongs that require a fee, and I'm all for that--if you think you can make money from it, sure, go ahead. I'm just not comfortable with her explanations...she says that there were too many people asking questions about her clue and that folks were emailing her nonstop, she had to take a break from the 2nd clue. Okay, taking time away from the family, I get that. But then she turned around and is now charging for the clues...that just doesn't jive with me. Is getting money going to allow her to spend more time with her family? uhmmm...no. Well, at least now she can say that she's getting something for missing out on personal time. whatever.

But here's the kicker. Here's why I don't think I'll purchase this pattern. She also has a group on Ravelry and folks were posting their disappointments about what they perceived as 'bait & switch' tactics. And true, it was a free KAL, and you get what you pay for, so stop your whinging. But here's the reason I won't be purchasing her pattern... She went and deleted the comments that she didn't like!

Wow. I've not seen that before. This is along the lines of Magknits and the way they closed up shop. Her attitude is that this was 'her house, and she can do as she pleases'. Okay, that's a paraphrase, but the thing about 'her house' is in her note she sent out.

Now, I'm a moderator for a yahoo group, and I have deleted posts, but I will email the poster to let them know why I deleted their post (usually, it's for silly things like that they put too much personal information in a post that goes out to a huge group, or that they're chatting on the board and that's not kosher--yeah, we're strict). But I don't delete because I don't agree with them (and we get some bulldog-types that just...won't...let...a...subject...go. big rolling eyes)

Anyway, my post didn't get deleted (yet), but posts above and below mine were decimated. Ughh...bad taste in mouth, bad taste...

I think that this designer should have thought about what a KAL would entail and talked w/ other designers first about how to run one successfully.

Later, I'll talk about my lovely weekend which started out with a trip to Color: A Fiber Festival today and will hopefully end with meeting up w/ Rav folks at the local library.

And I'll post a picture or two.

Update on the ever growing bunch of lace...

Dragone update:



yes, I'm almost done with the head...and I'm dragging on my dragone...

I also finally looked at the swirl shawl pattern by Jojoland and cast on one component to figure out if I'm willing to knit 80something of these...


Why yes, you cut the yarn so there will be over 160 ends to weave in. The one nice thing is that you pick up the edges so there's no seaming...This is supposed to be done in fingering yarn, but I like the Jojoland Harmony, so that's what I'm using. It's looking a bit flimsy to me (this is US3, of course) so I think I'll increase the size of each of these...I'm looking at Spiral Octagon Shawl from IK as a guide...I need ONE project where it'll be easy to follow once I start and I was really hoping this was it.

Back to tinking and knitting...

Filigree progress

I know I should be working on Dragone, but why when I've got extra lovely Colourmart silk/cashmere in Sangria whispering to me. Saying CAST ON FOR SOMETHING! oh, I guess it's shouting...not whispering. I decided that this gorgeous red cone of delight has to become a Niebling. (It's actually much darker red than pictured--note to self: work on taking better picture).


I was going to make Lyra, but fleegle has such a beautiful red version of it that I decided on Filigree. 'Filigree' is 554/33 aka Burda Special E554 pattern #33 aka Anna 0896/21 (Aug 1996 pattern #21). There might be other names too, but I don't know. Lacefreak is working on this shawl, and her's is in a sweet pink. She calls it Poppy, and I think it's a lovely name. It is related to Goldmohn (Burda #198), I believe that has more chrysanthemum-oaky jagged leaves in the center. And Goldmohn is a monstrocity at 311 rounds while this is a sweet 176 rounds.

Anyway, I had Colourmart double the cobweb weight yarn and am using a US3 needle. I'm finding that for laceweight, that's my standby. I started this project April 5, 2008. Here's the progress picture:



I think it really does need another tier of something...I think I'll do the leaves as is, fill in the in between leaves with hex, and then do a round of flowers or edging to finish it off.